I'll take it a step further, if one finds themself on the spectrum in any way, they're a populist to some degree. In some ways, I'm on the spectrum...but I sure the hell strive to stay off of it.
I, myself, strive to promote markets and hope that people, through voluntary interaction, using they're own preferences, can self-govern and be the beneficiaries of personal and desirable outcomes. Utopian and impossible? Yes! But history has shown what happens to a society when it gives up on the self-governing and market embracing ideals. I'll stick my Utopian dreams, thank you.
By the way, thanks for posting this editorial. It's one of the most important editorials to kick off a thread on this website in the last few weeks...and the saddest part of that is that the people who should be reading it will either quit three-quarters of the way through or not even bother to respond to it with their comments.
t the populists on the Left have gotten better PR than The Brown Shirts ever quite managed.
"Just after the completion and signing of the Constitution, in reply to a woman's inquiry as to the type of government the Founders had created, Benjamin Franklin said, "A Republic, if you can keep it."
That about sums it up.